


To Tame a Fox

by Masked_Trickster



Category: Naruto
Genre: Bullying, Gen, Minor Violence, Not Canon Compliant, i'll age up or age down to make things make sense, implied violence off screen, kishi's timeline is fucked, the people of konoha being jerks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 15:19:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19275988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masked_Trickster/pseuds/Masked_Trickster
Summary: "To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world..."- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince)A little boy moves to Konoha and meets Naruto. Unfortunately, Naruto can't tell when people are actually trying to be friends with him.The only way he knows how to make friends is through emotional turmoil and physically fighting.But the boy won't let that get him down. He's going to get through to Naruto!





	To Tame a Fox

At a time before Naruto had ever gone on his first mission, and a time after the Fourth Hokage’s death, a family had moved to Konohagakure.

The family was small, a father, a mother, a grandmother, and a son. They had just immigrated from a small village in Yugakure. Recently, there had been some fighting going on with bandits. They had been saving for a while, and were able to get out before anything really awful happened.

They had been one of the lucky ones.

* * *

The family was unpacking their bags when the mother noticed her son was looking out the window at the children walking down the street.

The mother smiled, what a polite boy they had raised. She called out to him, telling him he could run to the park down the road if he wanted.

“We have hardly any bags anyways. It will be nice for you to make friends soon.”

And the boy was off.

* * *

The boy was a bit on the shy side. Of course, he wasn’t so shy that he’d wilt away from others. He just liked to meet people one at a time, a crowd was overwhelming.

As he came up on the park, he noticed a few groups of children.

He thought about joining the kids on the jungle gym, but their game seemed a bit too rough for him.

He thought about the sandbox, but that group seemed a bit full.

He almost went to the slide, but those kids seemed to have a pattern down and he didn’t quite want to interrupt it.

Then, he saw a little blonde boy try to jump in. The boy watched as the other was pushed away from the slide. The kid that did the pushing yelled, “Get lost, Naruto! The slide is for our game!”

The boy watched as Naruto made his way to an empty swing and sat down.

 _What a mean group of friends_ , the boy thought, _it’s a good thing I found out before I tried to join them. Maybe I should make friends with Naruto? He’s by himself too, and maybe he’d be grateful to have a friend._

The boy walked toward the swing.

* * *

“Oh, we just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood, and of course, to warn you of a few small things.”

The mother and father watched their neighbors carefully, who knew if they were actually as kind as they seemed, but it wouldn’t do to just turn someone away right off the bat.

“Oh?”

“Yes, the shopkeeper up the road, he has wonderful melon bread, but his milk bread is awful. Oh, and there is this terrible ruffian child that likes to run around at the playground down the street. He likes to bully the civilian children now that he’s entered the ninja academy, so I’d suggest keeping your son away from him. He has these awful scars on his face.”

The mother gasped at that. The father turned to her, confused.

“I sent our boy to the park to play a few minutes ago!”

* * *

Naruto had startled when the boy walked toward him, scampering off and out of the park. The boy had wondered why, until he realized that he had been a bit close to the slide when everything had happened.

_Naruto must have thought I was part of the group of bullies._

The boy sighed at the failed attempt at friendship, and turned back to home.

* * *

“-and he thought I was part of the bullies and ran away!”

The mother cooed at her son, “Well, there’s always tomorrow.”

She had been worried for her boy, but her husband had assured her that while their son was shy, he wasn’t the type to let himself be bullied, and they weren’t the type of parents to allow it either.

Her son looked up at her, “Really?”

“Yes, why don’t you see if he’s there the same time tomorrow? Maybe you can tell him you weren’t part of the group of bullies. Does that sound alright?”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” he said.

* * *

The boy was very excited to see that Naruto _was_ there at the same time. He was already on the swing and everything!

Of course, that meant he might have been kicked off one of the playground areas by the bullies already, but the boy was just happy to see his perspective friend again.

This time, the boy tried to approach carefully, and as non-threatening as he could make it.

But the moment he got too close, Naruto scampered away. He looked agitated.

The boy resolved to try to get closer tomorrow.

* * *

As days went by, he was able to get closer and closer. Until all at once, Naruto rushed at him.

“What’s with you huh? Are you trying to laugh at me? Or push me off the swing?”

The boy was so shocked he didn’t say anything.

“I carved my name in it fair and square!”

The boy didn’t say anything, still shocked.

Naruto glared at him, and sat back down on his swing in a huff.

The boy settled down on the ground next to the swing, making sure to keep enough space between them to show he wasn’t going to shove Naruto in retaliation.

The two of them sat there after that, facing the rest of the playground, but Naruto watching the boy out of the corner of his eye.

* * *

The next day the boy was able to speak to Naruto.

Naruto didn’t seem to notice him, he was staring at the other kids. He looked a bit sad, maybe the bullies were making it so the other kids were scared to be friends with him?

Well, the boy definitely wouldn’t abandon Naruto just because some bullies were mean to him.

“Good morning,” the boy said.

Naruto jumped a bit, and turned to look at the boy. He looked confused, so the boy said again, “Good morning.”

“Good morning?”

Naruto was looking at the boy like he was a freak for saying something.

“Um…I just..uh, saw you over here and I wanted to say hi.”

Naruto kept staring at him, “…Okay?”

The boy blushed scarlet and turned away, “Right! Nice seeing you again!”

And the boy ran home.

* * *

"I can't speak to other people and so I can’t make friends."

The boy was sat at the dinner table, staring into his bowl of porridge. His mother fretted, but his father just seemed to think the whole affair was hilarious.

“Why not try again tomorrow, dear?” His mother said.

“Why doesn’t he just bring a snack?”

The boy’s parents turned to Grandma. She had already finished her porridge.

“I said, why don’t you bring your little friend a snack. Tell him you want to be friends.”

“I can’t just tell him I want to be friends. That’d be weird.”

“Then get him a snack and ask him if he wants to play Kemari or something.”

* * *

Naruto was walking with Old Man Hokage when he saw a weird tall grass. He’d seen it a lot, but it had never really mattered to him until today.

“Hey, old man? What’s that?”

The Hokage looked at the grass, “That’s tall grass, Naruto.”

Naruto blushed and pouted, “I know it’s a grass! I meant if it had a special name! It has that fancy stuff on top of it!”

The Hokage laughed at that, “It’s called silver grass, Naruto. People like to use it as a sort of hedge.”

Naruto thought of that weird kid that had been sitting with him lately.

“Oh…What’s a hedge, Old man?”

* * *

The boy stepped into the playground area, a small box of dango in his hands. He was nervous. He looked to the swing for Naruto, who was already looking at the entrance to the playground.

Oh, he was expecting him.

The boy walked toward Naruto, pulling a stick of dango out of his box.

“Here, I thought we could share.”

Naruto looked at the stick and looked at the boy. Then, something seemed to click for him, and his eyes got wide. The boy smiled at Naruto, he’d finally done it right!

Naruto seemed to be both scared and hopeful at the same time, like he’d never gotten a stick of dango from anyone before.

Naruto reached out to take the dango, his hand shaking. When he gently took it from the boy’s hand, he looked even more relieved than before.

The boy pulled out another dango for himself and the two took their own bites.

“Hey!”

The two of them turned to the voice. One of the other kids was yelling at them.

“I saw that!”

The boy frowned, _Oh, so now the bullies are going to yell at me for giving him a dango._

“I saw you take that boy’s dango!”

_What?_

“Yeah! You snatched it right out of his hand!”

There was a group of kids surrounding them now. One of them pushed the boy behind them, as if they needed to defend the boy from Naruto.

“What a freak! Thinks he can have dango like the rest of us!”

The kids started pushing Naruto, making him drop the dango.

“Now look what you did!”

“You dropped that kid’s dango!”

“You pushed me!”

“What did you say? My mama says everything’s your fault, so it is!”

Naruto pushed the kid that said that, causing the other kids to get mad. They all started pushing at Naruto, causing Naruto to push back.

The boy glared at the kids, he couldn’t believe what they were doing.

“Hey.”

“What a freak!”

“You shouldn’t even be here!”

“HEY!”

The kids stopped shoving Naruto, and all looked at the boy.

“I just got him to be my friend! And I gave him the dango!”

One of the leading kids glared at the boy, “Hey, you don’t know the rules. You’re not supposed to be friends with the monster.”

The boy glared right back, “I think you’re all bullies. I don’t need to know any rules, cause Naruto’s my friend.”

And with that, the boy grabbed Naruto’s hand and lead him to the dango shop.

* * *

Naruto sat at the shop, looking dazed.

“Am I really your friend?”

The boy looked at him, looking pleased with himself, “Yeah, and I’ve been trying to be friends with you this whole time!”

Naruto looked even more shocked at that.

“You mean…it wasn’t like, someone bet that you could get me to like you and then at the end you’d be mean and not be friends with me anymore?”

“What? No, where’d you come up with something like that?”

“One of the Old Man’s books…”

The boy didn’t know who the old man was, but he nodded anyways.

“Well, that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be friends with you.”

Naruto eyes got a bit shiny, “I’ve never had a friend before.”

“Well now you do.”

Naruto looked up, a bit embarrassed.

“I don’t even know your name! What kinda friend am I?”

“Well, I didn’t even tell you it. I was so swept up in getting you to let me come close, I guess I forgot.”

“Well what is it then?”

“Yakushi Kabuto.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so it's Kabuto. In this au he's 7-8 when Naruto's 6.  
> Honestly I had intended the boy to be an oc, and then when I told my rough plan, ending with "the kid grabs Naruto and takes him to the dango place" Siren said "And that kid's name is Kabuto" and I was so shook I had to write it.


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